A Key Test for Nokia’s CEO

With Chief Executive Stephen Elop’s two-year anniversary at the helm of Nokia approaching, his most recently launched smartphones—the so-called Lumia series—have yet to attract the desired interest from consumers. Now, Nokia also faces the prospect of greater competition from rival Samsung Electronics, which surprised the industry by slipping ahead of Nokia last week and announcing its own Windows 8 phone.

Mr. Elop dismissed the threat from Samsung, saying the South Korean company threw in a Windows phone at the end of a series of announcements, demonstrating a lack of commitment to the Microsoft platform.

But Mr. Elop says that the full force of Nokia’s R&D has been poured into the new Windows 8 phones. “That sends a very different message” than Samsung’s.

Samsung didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.

Nokia once led the handset market but has failed to keep up with phones built by Apple or powered by Google 's Android software. Earlier this year, Samsung replaced Nokia as the world’s top seller of mobile phones.